Film Reviews by Alphaville

This globe-trotting old-school action thriller hits all the right spots. Director Pierre Morel, who also made Taken, directs with a firm hand and a steady camera. The well-paced plot rattles along with barely a dull moment. With so many laughable thrillers in the John Wicke mould around, it’s good to see some tense set-pieces with realistic action and resourceful baddies who can shoot straight. Even the climax manages to be both silly and exciting at the same time.

With a more charismatic leading man The Gunman could have been a classic of its kind. A beefed-up Sean Penn nevertheless manages to carry the part and it’s fun seeing Mark Rylance trying to play a baddie. Not a classic in the manner of the first Bourne film, but a solid four-star thriller vastly underestimated in the States. Pierre Morel is building a formidable reputation for this kind of realistic action thriller. If only he could have replaced Greengrass on the later Bourne films…

Good-natured old-fashioned British drama about making a Second World War propaganda film to boost morale after Dunkirk. One character complains that to American audiences ‘understatement translates as a lack of oomph’. Their Finest is an example of a film that could do with more oomph. The only plot point you won’t expect is the ending, and that’s a complete tonal mistake anyway.

Another character says that a film should be ‘worth an hour and a half of someone’s life’. This is little more than undemanding Sunday night television fare with a score that’s awash with lush orchestral music and plinky-plink piano. Nevertheless it bowls along pleasantly enough if you’re in the mood, with a romantic subplot, engaging dialogue and an uproarious turn from Bill Nighy as a cantankerous actor.

Another winner from Kim Jee-woon. This Korean box-office smash has the feel of an epic WW2 French Resistance film, except it’s set in 1928 Korea during the Japanese occupation. Fans of the director will not be disappointed. The prologue alone is a dazzling piece of filmmaking – a rooftop chase as exciting as anything in Crouching Tiger Hidden Tiger but without the wirework.

The plot pitches a resistance group against a sadistic Japanese cop and a conflicted Korean cop. There’s an absorbing air of menace throughout and when the film bursts into action it really moves. An extended tense set piece on a train couldn’t have been bettered by Hitchcock. The award-winning score by Mowg, which accompanies shootouts with everything from electro to Louis Armstrong, is equally exciting. There’s perhaps too much time spent plotting in back rooms but overall this is a film that makes you remember why you love cinema.

The intriguing sci-fi premise is the least ridiculous thing about this film. A CIA agent’s memory is transferred into the brain of a criminal (Kevin Costner). It has to be him because he’s a psycho thug who ‘feels nothing’ (yeah, right). Our Kev conveys the psycho thugness by looking grizzled and grunting a lot.

The first ten minutes are the best, with agent Ryan Reynolds running around London evading baddies. Shame the baddies kill him (no spoiler, it’s in the trailer). We then spend the rest of the movie with Costner having flashbacks of Reynold’s memory and acting badass. It’s risible stuff, with lots of swearing employed to convey emotion.

Costner’s the main protagonist and his character is impossible to warm too, even when (who’d have guessed?) he starts to develop a heart. It’s a fatal flaw, but he’s not the biggest joke in the film. Gary Oldman is a scriptwriter’s fantasy of a CIA chief, channelling the spirit of his cop in Leon. The James Bond-type plot has a computer nerd stealing missile launch codes, but the script never takes it seriously. Michael Pitt endures a career low in the thankless part of the nerd.

Once Ryan is gone (lucky him) the plot and acting soon become too preposterous for any response but laughter and eventual boredom.

Lo-key Aussie thriller lacks life. More of a naturalistic procedural about baddies escaping jail and stealing gold. Nothing we haven’t seen done better many times before. Brenton Thwaites is a charisma-free lead. The soporific score, with saccharine muzak for the romantic subplot, is a metaphor for the whole enterprise.

A big sprawling epic in the mould of Out of Africa and Legends of the Fall, this has a promising original backdrop – a medical mission in a First World War Turkey where Christians and Turks kill each other. But while the landscapes are suitably vast, the drama never really takes off. It jogs along pleasantly enough but for most of its length there’s no conflict, romance or any other plot device to maintain interest. The performances are oddly blank and a lush score that may begin to irritate washes over all. An hour passes before there’s any intrigue of any kind, and the ensuing melodrama fails to convince. The original concept is to be applauded, but unfortunately it’s all a bit-ho-hum.

Lo-budget, lo-key, shot with little imagination and zero visual flair, this probably looked better as a script. Watch the trailer first to see what you’re getting.

The good news is that at last there’s a Marvel film with an adult vibe – ‘a comic book film aimed at adults,’ as director James Mangold describes it on the commentary. The bad news is that if you haven’t seen previous juvenile X-Men movies you won’t understand the background or what Patrick Stewart’s role is. He and Logan (Hugh Jackman) are old and tired and hang out in the desert away from people who don’t like them. They’re mutants, you see. Charles (Patrick) has seizures that make the screen go all wavy. Logan is also Wolverine and has claws on his knuckles – must have been a bad day at the office when they dreamt that one up.

The film has a melancholy vibe concerned with ageing and mortality but the plot is complete Marvel nonsense. Charles and Logan are on the run with a mute girl who also has claws on her knuckles. Who is this film aimed at? The usual immature fanboys be bored while adults will simply find the mixture of melancholia and slashing silly.

It does get better as it goes along. The backstory becomes less relevant as it turns into a road movie through the deserts of New Mexico, for budget reasons standing-in in for the Badlands of North Dakota. There’s a formidable new baddie to deal with and the boring green-screen special effects of earlier X-Men movies are replaced by more realistic and dramatic confrontations. Nevertheless, it’ s hardly a spoiler to say it all ends in yet another slash-fest.

Best thing about the film? The director’s commentary by James Mangold. It’s almost a masterclass in film direction. He goes through one scene frame by frame, explaining the importance of Point Of View, how it differs in books and films and how it’s the failure to master POV that ruins many films. Watch the film first, then listen and learn.

Less flamboyant than his American films such as Basic Instinct and Showgirls, this Paul Verhoeven film redresses the balance far too much. For much of its length it’s so subdued it’s soporific. Isabelle Huppert is raped in the first scene then we follow her in her everyday life to get to know more about her. She contributes a great performance and it’s all efficiently directed, but the various subplots are just not that interesting.

No character behaves in any way that makes psychological sense. Cold fish Elle herself, the ridiculous rapist, her over-emoting son, her so-called friends and work colleagues who may or may not like her. Sure, it’s meant to be amoral, but there’s no sense of reality to hold on to, which makes her rape and the cold way she reacts to it difficult to engage with. To say more would require spoilers.

If you stick with it the plot does eventually break out with incident, but only to make what’s gone before even more unbelievable.

Gravity raised the bar for what we expect from films set in space and Life does not disappoint. The whole film is set in a space station in zero gravity and the production design is dazzling. The long pre-titles sequence, in which the flowing camera follows the astronauts as they fly around the station, is mesmerising. The plot develops into an intense survival story when a minute Martian life form is taken on board, starts to grow and turns nasty. The pitch is Gravity meets Alien, but it’s better than Alien.

Alien’s main shock tactic was the old stand-by of having its characters wander through dark spaces while we wait for something to jump out at them. Life is more imaginative. Unlike in lesser sci-fi films, the plot is scientifically grounded and all the station crew are realistic and personable astronauts, which adds to the impact of the alien’s disregard for human life. Tension and shocks come from the nature of the beast itself, whose metabolism is apparently based on that of slime mould (see DVD extras). The zero-G camerawork, accomplished using wires, is fluid and captivating, spatially disorienting the viewer and adding to the other-worldliness of the events on screen.

Director Daniel Espinosa’s aim was to make a sci-fi creature feature that was both ‘plausible and terrifying’. He’s succeeded. Trailer notes: the trailer should be applauded for not giving too much away but is still best avoided.

Although filmed on an epic scale, this story of the battle against drugs on the Mekong River is a mess of a movie. Filmed with a scattergun approach to both plotting and cinemaphotography, it’s difficult to follow and, although based on true events, difficult to care about. Action set pieces are ruined by shakycam and rapid editing. A shoot-out in a cave could have been interesting but the footage only lasts a few seconds, which is typical of the film not being able to distinguish between what works and what doesn’t. It’s as if director Dante Lam has been watching too many Paul Greengrass films. It’s real disappointment from him after films such as The Beast Stalker.

Director Zhang Yimou has a way with landscape and it’s worth watching this most expensive film in Chinese history (and first major co-production with America) if only for the amazing scenery. As for the action, it’s comic-book, spaghetti-eastern nonsense. The creature-feature story is sheer rubbish. Swarms of demon monsters are dispatched like orcs while Matt Damon fails to convince under Zhang’s translated direction.

As you’d expect from Zhang, there’s lots of colourful dressing up and mass drumming and silly battling interspersed with boring exposition. His concentration on the visual spectacle is laudable but, as in some of his previous work, it’s not enough to carry the film when the script is so awful. How to kill the hordes of attacking creatures? Bungee jump into their midst from the Great Wall. It’s ridiculous. Is that really the best they could come up with? Nevertheless, the scenes filmed around the Painted Mountains and Wangmang Mountain are mesmerising.

This underpowered historical drama about the adventures of Percy Fawcett in South America has a TV vibe. There’s plenty of opportunity here for jungle drama and excitement but James Gray directs by the numbers with static camera and can’t imbue his characters with any dynamism. It’s all dressing up and restrained acting, like a TV period drama. The action flits between London and the jungle with no sense of timing, pacing or development. The acting is stagey to say the least. Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett has no screen presence, while even Robert Pattinson lacks his usual charisma. Of the main characters, only Sienna Miller as the long-suffering wife rises above the film’s deadening hand.

It’s one thing to be true to Fawcett’s memory, but real life rarely has the drama or pacing required to make a successful movie plot, not when filmed as painstakingly as this. It’s a missed opportunity to do Fawcett justice and make what could have been an exciting and inspiring adventure story.

A modern take on a traditional Korean fairy-tale, Kim Jee-woon’s third (2003) feature is as gorgeously filmed as you’d expect from the visually imaginative director. It’s also something of a slow-moving tour de force. As a horror story it never really gets going. Most viewers will find it a long drawn-out affair, long on creepy atmosphere but short on incident. There’s a brilliant reveal after 75min but you may not care by then. A disappointing watch.

Three computer nerds may have had contact with aliens and be infected with alien DNA. Things may not be as they seem, especially with their bodies. Dr Laurence Fishburne investigates in a protective suit in a secure facility. It’s mysterious and fascinating. All our trapped hero Brenton Thwaites wants to do is escape, but is that safe? What new powers might he possess? It gets compellingly weirder as it progresses.

Thrilling in parts, disturbing in parts, this is a much more thoughtful film than the average dumb blockbuster. It’s imaginatively shot in the American west, with great effects for a small budget, and is a great calling card for writer/director William Eubank. One caveat: on the DVD commentary the director and his two co-writers come across as irritating gaming nerds who think everything is brilliant, man. Amazingly, they’ve crafted an engrossing movie.